Discovery/R&D

51. mRNA Upstarts With Radar Therapeutics' Sophia Lugo and Eerik Kaseniit, Ph.D. 8/25/2024

    Guest co-host Anna Rose Welch of Advancing RNA fame joins us on this week’s Business of Biotech podcast for a conversation with the leaders of RNA upstart Radar Therapeutics. The company’s co-founders, Eerik Kaseniit, Ph.D. (CSO & President) and Sophia Lugo (CEO), are making waves in the mRNA therapeutics space on the heels of the invention of a precision-expressed mRNA technology that laid bare the path to Radar’s inception.

52. BoB@JPM: Self-Replicating RNA With Elixirgen's Akihiro Ko 3/5/2023

    Elixirgen Therapeutics CEO Akihiro Ko joins the Business of Biotech for the final episode in our special series recorded at JPM Week in San Francisco. Life Science Leader Chief Editor Ben Comer joined us for the conversation. We dive deep into Elixirgen's unique, temperature-controlled in-vivo gene expression technology designed to address common cell therapy administration challenges and unwanted, off-target immungenicity effects. Ko also shares progress on the company's ex-vivo candidate EXG-34217, an autologous cell therapy for telomere biology disorders, offers his take on the ever-crowded RNA therapeutics space and how the company is separating itself from the crowd, and much more!

53. Precision Approach To Infectious Disease With Locus Biosciences' Paul Garofolo 1/13/2022

    Locus Biosciences CEO Paul Garofolo built his biotech leadership career on the back of an MIS degree, having learned the business from the inside out via the tentacles of the IT networks at companies including Genentech, The Broadlane Group, Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Patheon. On today's episode of the Business of Biotech, Garofolo shares how a technologist's approach has helped shape the effort to develop precision therapeutics for infectious diseases at Locus, the company's decision to build its own cGMP manufacturing facility in Research Triangle, and the massive business opportunity the field addresses in the effort to overcome antibiotic resistance.

54. The Discovery Of Microbes And Implications For Public Health Today, With Science Writer Thomas Levenson 6/4/2025

    On this week's Business of Biotech, Thomas Levenson, MIT professor and author of So Very Small: How Humans Discovered The Microcosmos, Defeated Germs — And May Still Lose The War Against Infectious Disease talks about what he learned in the writing of So Very Small, how cultural and political forces shape scientific progress, and what it means for drug developers, public health officials, and patients everywhere.

55. Maximizing mRNA With Precision Nanosystems' James Taylor, Ph.D. 11/8/2021

    Dr. James Taylor believes that genomic medicine will prove the most revolutionary thing the life sciences industries have ever seen, and that it will ultimately become the largest therapeutic class. Dr. Taylor is president and CEO at Precision Nanosystems. He chalks up the genomic nature of biology, the fact that genomes are information-based, the breadth and validation of the genomic medicine toolbox, and the democratization of genomic medicine development as reasons to be bullish. Join Dr. Taylor and me for a conversation on why RNA and DNA delivery are game-changers, and what Precision Nanosystems is doing to push the ball downfield.

56. mRNA Vaccine Platforms With Combined Therapeutics' Dr. Romain Micol 11/29/2023

    Combined Therapeutics President & CEO Dr. Romain Micol is operating his company in a very noisy space, where hundreds of new biotechs have popped up on the coattails of a COVID-driven renewal of interest in mRNA vaccines. Micol recognizes that noise and the competition it brings for capital and mindshare. 

57. Precision Drug Delivery with Ampersand Biomedicines' Jason Gardner, Ph.D. 4/10/2024

    Ampersand Biomedicines CEO Jason Gardner, Ph.D. first took the leap from a global pharmaceutical giant to a startup at the forefront of transplant medicine innovation. Since that time, he's seen most of the ups and the downs that come with biotech leadership, and in his latest venture with the Flagship Pioneering-backed Ampersand, he's putting all those hard-fought lessons to good use.

58. Commensal Viral Vectors With Ring Therapeutics' Tuyen Ong, M.D. 4/12/2022

    When Tuyen Ong was a child, he and his family escaped Vietnam by boat in the dead of the night, bound for an Indonesian refugee camp. They spent a year in that camp before emigrating to the U.K., where Ong’s underprivileged adolescence found him growing up in the projects of London. Against the odds, Ong worked his way to UCL for an education that culminated with an M.D. Today, he’s CEO of Ring Therapeutics, a promising emerging biotech backed by Flagship Pioneering, the kingmaker behind the rise of Moderna. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Ong shares on his challenging formative years, the unspoken love between a father and son, facing down racism as a poor Chinese kid in Vietnam and London, and how those experiences shape his leadership at Ring. Oh, and we talk about some pretty cool science, too.

59. AI & The Human Genome 2/22/2021

    From his Fellowship at the NIH Human Genome Research Institute to his leadership as CEO at NeuBase Therapeutics, Dr. Dietrich Stephan is recognized as a pioneer in the field of genomic precision medicine. On this episode of The Business of Biotech, Dr. Stephan shares how artificial intelligence is shaping the acceleration of genomic medicine discovery at NeuBase and beyond, with plenty of practical insight on how to adopt and leverage the technology.

60. RNA-Engineered Cell Therapy With Cartesian's Dr. Murat Kalayoglu 6/10/2021

    Cartesian President & CEO Murat Kalayoglu, M.D., Ph.D. has led three of his company's six autoimmune, oncology, and respiratory candidates through Phase I/II clinical trials and two more of them are on the cusp of entering Phase I this year. With so many programs in and entering the clinic, he's a great choice for a conversation on GMP expectations for phase I first-in-human trials. Glean insight from Cartesian's experiences and learn about the company's novel approach to RNA-engineered cell therapies for oncology and beyond on this episode of The Business of Biotech.